Stanford, Calif. - A federal court in New York on Monday heard arguments from Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, who along with Warner Bros. (NYSE: TWX) has filed suit to prevent the publication of a reference guide to the series, claiming its creator has stolen her work. The defendant, RDR Books, argued that its print version of "The Harry Potter Lexicon," based on school librarian and Harry Potter fan Steven Vander Ark's Web resource of the same name, is a legal "fair use" or Rowling's works.

Seattle - Calling it a "Thank you" for the 12 million copies of her "Harry Potter" books sold through its site, online retailer Amazon.com (NASD: AMZN) revealed that it paid nearly $4 million at auction to purchase one of only seven handwritten and illustrated copies of J.K. Rowling's "The Tales of Beedle the Bard." Ms. Rowling will donate the proceeds to her charity for institutionalized children in Europe, The Children's Voice.

Paris - French police have arrested a teenager suspected of posting a French-language translation of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" on the Internet weeks before its official release, Reuters reported.

New York - Author J.K. Rowling will continue her refusal to allow any of her "Harry Potter" books to date to be published as e-books when the forthcoming seventh and final installment, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," is released on July 21, the Associated Press reported.

Seattle - Online retail giant Amazon.com announced on Friday that it received more pre-orders for "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows," the final installment in author J.K. Rowling's series, in its first seven hours of availability than it did in the first two days of pre-order sales for the sixth book, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince." Seattle-based Amazon said it received a total of more than 1.5 million advance orders for the sixth book, which was released in July 2005 and figured as the largest, most successful product release in the company's history.